William Hughes

“Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated.” - Will Rogers

Back in the late 50s, I was an aide-de-camp to the Hon. Michael J. “Iron Mike” McHale, 6th District City Councilman in Baltimore City. Around that time, there was a hotly contested citywide municipal election going on. McHale, now deceased, went to a meeting with the then leader of his South Baltimore organization, Julian “Fats” Carrick. They met in a downtown office, with Philip H. Goodman--one of the key political bosses in town, who later served as a mayor of Baltimore (1962-3). According to McHale, Goodman tossed a stack of twenty dollar bills on the table. “This is your ‘walk around money’ for your organization’s support,” Goodman cracked. (1) Carrick, now deceased, nodded his approval and scooped up the cash. On the ride back home, Mr. Carrick told Councilman McHale: “Without these greenbacks, Thomas Jefferson couldn’t get elected today!!”

Full story »

Khalid Amayreh

Palestinian Authority (PA) officials and spokesmen have been lying through their teeth lately about their increasingly vile treatment of the Palestinian people.

These people have been claiming, nearly on a daily basis, that their American-paid and trained forces are not arresting political activists and that only “criminals” and “terrorist elements” are being hounded and arrested.

Well, we who live here in the West Bank, don’t have to be presumptive about what is happening in our neighborhoods, streets, towns and villages these days. We see the daily arrests with our own eyes, we know the detainees, we know their families and their friends. Hence, we don’t even have to compare and contrast various accounts of the disgraceful onslaught by the PA against the Palestinian masses. Things are simply too plain to be controversial.

Full story »

By Sameh A. Habeeb

We, Palestinians, are aspiring to any glimpse of hope to establishing our promising country of Palestine. Originally, that glimpse of hope grew when Israelis realized in the nineties that a real peace will not be achieved apart from an Independent Palestinian state. That time, the world agreed on that concept and peace deal (Oslo) was held in Washington D.C, after the first Bush had left office.

Regardless of Oslo and its disadvantages we started the self governing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip awaiting the transitional period in the next stages. But as many expected things went deep down after Israel approved that, it was unconcerned in any peace agreement that relied on giving us land in exchange for peace.

Full story »

Len Hart

If you believe that Sarah Palin is an exemplary product of what can be achieved with the GOP in charge of the nation's education, then --by all means --vote for McCain/Palin. Knowing that what Sarah Palin achieved educationally, your own daughter might come to believe that the human beings walked beside dinosaurs only six thousand years ago.

It was on this day four years ago that George W. Bush 'won' a second term with a promise to help the 'democracies' of Afghanistan and Iraq 'grow in strength and freedom'.

Full story »

Stephen Lendman

In its latest economic outlook, Merrill Lynch economists "worry about inflation, or more precisely," a lack of it. From crashing global equity markets, falling commodity prices, rising unemployment, stagnant wages, over-indebted households, declining production, the continuing housing crisis, and more. All pointing to several future quarters of negative growth. Showing that Fed chairman Bernanke will face "his greatest fear: deflation." An analysis of the coincident to lagging indicators signals "deep recession."

Full story »

Greg Palast

Two Obama canvassers prepare their pitch before knocking on registered Republicans' doors in Arvada, Colorado. (Photo: Kevin Moloney / The New York Times)

It's November 5 and the nation is in shock. Media blame it on the "Bradley effect":

Americans supposedly turned into Klansmen inside the voting booth, and Barack Obama turned up with 6 million votes less than calculated from the exit polls. Florida came in for McCain and so did Indiana. Colorado, despite the Democrats' Rocky Mountain high after the Denver convention, stayed surprisingly Red. New Mexico, a state where Anglos are a minority, went McCain by 300 votes, as did Virginia.

That's the nightmare. Here's the cold reality.

Full story »

Len Hart

If you have experienced a 'decline' in your net worth, you have gotten poorer. Congratulations! You have now joined the MILLIONS whose net worth numbers have declined consistently over a period of 28 years of GOP domination, incompetence and vainglorious imperial designs from which ONLY the Military/Industrial complex has benefited! Enough of this crap is enough. Just tell the GOP to bugger off!

The 'L-curve' helps one imagine the degree to which wealth in the United States in inequitably distributed by policy and by design. The US population is represented 'stretched across a football field in order of income, from poorest, on the left, to richest. Imagine a stack of $100 bills 'representing each person's income.' For example: a stack one inch high represents a stack of one hundred dollars bills, i.e, $25,000. The red line on the graph represents the height of that stack compared to an American football field.

Full story »

Deanna Spingola

Who and what motivated Japan’s brutal activities against its neighbors as described in part 14? Britain detrimentally meddled in Asia in the 19th century and America meddled in Asia in the 20th century – who was behind their actions? Kuhn, Loeb and Company financed Japan’s Russian invasion in 1905 while the European Rothschilds financed the Russians which somehow failed to receive timely armament delivery. Russia’s objectives, viable in 1895, were an ice-free Pacific port and the acquisition of just enough leased territory for the continuation of her transcontinental railway.1 The conflict decimated Russia’s economy, preparatory to the well-planned revolution based on philosophy from Karl Marx (1818-83). The House of Rothschild, since 1863, had headquarters in four cities: London, Paris, Vienna and Frankfort.2

Full story »

Khalid Amayreh in Occupied Jerusalem

It is true that Condoleezza Rice is smarter than her conspicuously ignorant boss, President George Bush.

However, in terms of moral character, it is amply clear that Rice is at least as dishonest and mendacious as her boss is.

After all, we are talking about a woman who knows little or no moral distinction between truth and falsehood and between right and wrong.

This the very woman who two years ago had the guts to congratulate her Israeli counterpart, Tzipi Livni, on the “success” of the Nazi-like blockade Israel had been imposing on the Gaza Strip, which destroyed the Gaza economy and pushed 1.5 million innocent human beings to the brink of Auschwitz.

Full story »

Stephen Lendman

Despite his advanced age, the news came as a shock. An era had passed. On October 31, author, activist, actor, broadcaster, and mensch for all seasons Louis "Studs" Terkel died peacefully at his Chicago North Side home at age 96. Already weakened by other ailments, his health declined further from a fall in his home two weeks earlier.

His son Dan paid tribute to his father. He "led a long, full, eventful, sometimes tempestuous, but very satisfying life." He was the master of oral history. Calvin Trillin called him "America's pre-eminent listener" that was "all the more remarkable when you consider that he (was) a prodigious talker." On jazz to world affairs. His soap-opera days to the state of the nation. Interviews with entertainers, artists, politicians, philosophers and social critics. Figures like Bertrand Russell, John Kenneth Galbraith, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Zero Mostel, and Margaret Mead. Others he knew like Mahalia Jackson, David Dellinger, Nelson Algren, and Eugene Debs. The greats and near-greats but mostly ordinary people.

Full story »